Sunday, August 31, 2014

Level Renner 10K Brockton

August 17, 2014
The Level Renner 10K is beautiful two loop road course with rolling hills within D.W. Field Park in Brockton. 80% of the course is in the shade. CMS had more than seven men in the race including Nate Jenkins, Greg Putnam, Joe Shairs, Al Bernier (making his 40 year old debut), Jason Porter, and Scott Deslongchamps. We were gunning for the team prize money. Five scored this year as opposed to the three from last year. The start headed up the road passing the lookout tower. This hill is a beast as we encounter it two more times. I was with Jason Porter, Joe Shairs, and Robert Cipriano in the early miles. Al was about five seconds ahead and looking very strong after my 5:35 opening mile. I got a little room away from those guys about half way through. Al was not coming back as he built up 15 seconds on me. I recall going through mile 5 around 28:00. Robert passed me and caught Al with 800 meters to go. They had an envious battle up the last hill. Al stopped and dry heaved just after six miles. I urged him to get back in it - he did but lost time and three spots. Meanwhile, I had someone breathing down my neck - John Bigoutte from CT. He edged me at the very end. Joe was ten seconds back and Al was in behind him. My time was 34:52 for 10th - almost a minute quicker than last year. The team won but no team prize exchanged hands due to lack of teams. Race director, KG has to pay the bills which is fine by me. No problem as I picked up a Garmin GPS watch that went to Krissy's sister.